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Pipe Roll
(1201-1202)The Great Rolls of the Pipe are the central record of the crown compiling returns of income and expenditure from the sheriffs and farmers of the various English counties or shires. This is the oldest series of public records, and the earliest surviving instances of many surnames are found in the Pipe Rolls. Two sets of pipe rolls were prepared, not exact duplicates, the main series being the Treasurer's or Exchequer rolls, the copies (of which fewer have survived) being the Chancellor's rolls. The Chancellor's roll (or Antigraphum) for the 3rd year of king John became separated from that series at some date, and found its way to the miscellaneous records in the Chapter House at Westminster. As it happens, the Chancellor's roll for that year is in a better state of preservation than the Treasurer's roll, so it was chosen for publication by the Commissioners on the Public Records of the Kingdom, by whom it was printed in extenso in 1833.

FORESTARII. Cost: £4.00.

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Feet of Fines for Dorset
(1195-1214)Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in the county. This transcript was prepared for the Commissioners of the Public Records by Joseph Hunter, and printed in 1844. It covers entries for the county from the surviving rolls from the 7th year of the reign of king Richard I to the 16th year of king John.

FORESTARII. Cost: £4.00.

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Oblata or Fine Rolls
(1200-1216)All the surviving oblata or fine rolls of the reign of king John were edited by Thomas Duffus Hardy and printed by the Commissioners of the Public Records in 1835. These are the oblata rolls of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of the reign, and the fine rolls of the 6th, 7th, 9th, 15th, 16th and 17th years. These rolls contain notices of the oblations or fines offered to the Crown to procure grants and confirmations of liberties and franchises of markets, fairs, parks and free warren; for exemption from tolls, pontage, passage and murage; to obtain justice and right; to stop, delay or expedite pleas, trials and judgments; and to remove suits and processes from inferior tribunals into the King's Court. Fines were also extracted for licence to trade, or permission to exercise commerce or industry of any kind, and to have the aid, protection, or goodwill of the King; to mitigate his anger or abate his displeasure; to be exempted from knighthood either for a term or for ever, and from attending the King in his foreign expeditions; they were also demanded for seisin or restitution of ancestral lands or chattels; for allowing delinquents to be replevied or bailed; for acquittal of murder; and for pardon of trespasses and misdemeanours; for the 'year and a day' of the lands and goods of felons and fugitives. Almost all entries have the county in question indicated in the left hand margin.